LEAFS RIGHT FIT FOR VIDEO-GAME SUCCESS
STAR-STUDDED TEAM IS EA SPORTS PICK TO END CUP DROUGHT
Plan the pixelated parade. According to an EA Sports’ NHL 19 computer simulation, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to defeat the San Jose Sharks to win the Stanley Cup this season, with John Tavares claiming the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Then again, based on the screenshots provided by the popular video game franchise, Mitch Marner will have grown an impressive handlebar moustache by the end of the playoffs. So the game’s still got some bugs to work out.
What it essentially means is that the Leafs are now one of the best teams in the NHL — at least on paper.
It’s not hard to see why. After signing Tavares on July 1, the Leafs have the kind of star-studded of roster that is tailor-made for a video game. It’s all speed and skill and no grit. No wonder EA Sports gave the Leafs an overall best score of 93, as well as ranked three of their players (Tavares, Auston Matthews and goalie Frederik Andersen) in the top 50.
“I don’t think we’re deliberately making a statement, because it is looking at what’s going on,” said Will Ho, who is NHL 19’s creative director. “It’s looking at scouting reports and it’s looking at their actual performance, so the ratings reflect that. There’s no editorializing of what’s going on.
“If we get the individual players right, it should be pretty realistic.”
Indeed, two years ago the simulation predicted that the Nashville Predators would win the championship. They ended up losing in the final. Last year’s simulation winner was the Tampa Bay Lightning, who lost in the conference final.
“We’re not right that often, but I think we have a certain percentage of teams that come out of the first round,” said Ho. “It’s sort of the nature of the playoffs. Anyone can win. Like who picked the Golden Knights to go to the final?”
While EA Sports picked the Leafs to win the Cup, the season does not bode well for the rest of Canada. Winnipeg is expected to lose to Nashville in the second round of the playoffs, but the bigger surprise is that both Edmonton and Calgary — along with Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver — will all fail to qualify for the post-season.
No word on whether Todd McLellan’s avatar will lose his job.
As for individual awards, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid is expected to win his third straight scoring title, as well as the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award as league MVP. Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine is going to lead the league in goals, former Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson — now with the Sharks — is going to win the Norris Trophy, Buffalo rookie Rasmus Dahlin is going to win the Calder Trophy, and Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is going to win the Vezina Trophy.
“It comes from a team that is passionate about hockey,” said Ho, a lifelong Oilers fans. “We want our product to reflect that passion.”
SPORTSNET PRESIDENT MOVING ON
Scott Moore, who helped secure a blockbuster 12-year deal for the national broadcast rights to the NHL, is stepping down as president of Sportsnet. And he’s doing it just as we’re on the cusp of seeing a Canadian team finally win the Stanley Cup.
It was in the fall of 2013 when Rogers spent US$5.2 billion to wrestle full control of the NHL broadcasting rights away from CBC and TSN. At first, it looked like a severe overpay, as ratings tumbled in large part because all seven Canadian teams missed the playoffs in 2015-16. But the renewed success of the Maple Leafs, along with the Jets, Oilers and Flames, have turned things around since then.
“I’m so proud of what our team has accomplished,” Moore, who is being replaced in the interim by Rogers Media president Rick Brace, said in a statement. “Sportsnet is in a great place for future growth with all our platforms and I will be cheering on the team from the stands.”
ROOKIE CLASS COULD BE SPECIAL
The season hasn’t yet begun, but the 2018 NHL Draft is already looking like it was a good one with the first five picks — and several more — all sticking with their teams.
Well, for now at least. A year ago, 10 players went from the draft floor to the NHL. But only top two picks Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick remained past the nine-game mark.
While Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin (first overall), Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov (No. 2) and Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk (No. 4) are considered locks to stay with the club, there are bigger question marks with Montreal’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi (No. 3) and Arizona’s Barrett Hayton (No. 5), both of whom have benefitted from a lack of depth at the centre position.
McELHINNEY GETS A SHOT AT THE NO. 1 JOB
Good on the Hurricanes for claiming former Leafs goalie Curtis McElhinney off waivers on Tuesday. McElhinney might be a journeyman backup, but after posting a .934 save percentage in 18 games last season, the 35-year-old deserved a chance to show he can be more than just an afterthought. He’ll get that chance in Carolina, where an injured Scott Darling, who struggled last season, and Petr Mrazek are no one’s idea of a No. 1 goalie.
PRE-SEASON MEANS SOMETHING
Pre-season stats generally mean nothing, but Vegas has to be pleased that Max Pacioretty, who was coming off one of his worst seasons, scored four goals in five games with his new team. On the flip side, it can’t make Oilers management too happy that Milan Lucic had just a power-play goal and an assist, along with a minus-2 rating, in four games.
THIS AND THAT
Shea Weber is the new captain of the Canadiens. But it’s Carey Price’s team and everyone knows it. Montreal goes as far as its goalie takes them ... There are now eight teams (Buffalo, Detroit, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Vegas) without a captain. Looking at some of the choices around the league (Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, Minnesota’s Saku Koivu, New Jersey’s Andy Greene), there really should be more vacancies ... The Vegas flu could be a thing of the past — at least in the first half of the season — with the Golden Knights playing only 18 of their first 41 games at home ... Of all the players potentially starting the season on the injured list, the one that impacts his team the most is goaltender Corey Crawford. If he’s out for any length of time, the Blackhawks have no shot at the playoffs.
The man in line at the grocery store saw me from a couple of aisles over and yelled out loud: “Is this the year?”
It started a conversation. The worker putting out fruit began talking to the woman in line behind me and soon it seemed everywhere in the store: Leafs talk.
“I think,” said the woman with a full cart, “this is the year.”
This came after my barber, the huge soccer fan from Italy, could only talk about one subject while trimming my beard — the Maple Leafs.
This came after the people waiting at the bank for a teller were talking hockey. This came after the cashier at the local deli, who usually talks only baseball and Alex Anthopoulos, she’s Greek, asked about the Leafs.
The talk, it seems, is everywhere. Banks. Barber shops. Grocery stores. Delis. The local mall. Parent-teacher night. It doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t matter who you are. You hear it on the Danforth, in Little Italy, almost everywhere in uber-ethnic Toronto.
And today the conversation changes. Today the most anticipated Toronto hockey season in more than half a century begins. It isn’t Stanley Cup or bust in this city. It’s contend and then contend and then contend until you win, but it has to happen, doesn’t it?
Maybe this is the year, maybe next year, one of these years. The Stanley Cup that would never happen in our lifetime is somewhere on the horizon.
Bodog, the offshore betting service, has foolishly placed the Leafs at Stanley Cup favourites, even if they’re not in reality that. But all that conversation, all this unbridled optimism makes the city tingle and as Auston Matthews said Tuesday on the eve of this third NHL season: “They’re excited, we’re excited, there’s reason to be excited.”
I am one of the lucky ones. I have clear memories of 1967. I remember talking my dad into staying up to watch the third period of the Leafs’ last Stanley Cup championship. I was 10 years old at the time and the third period was past my bedtime.
When George Armstrong slid the puck into the empty net to ensure the win against Montreal, my dad, not a hockey fan, was clear: “Go to bed.”
I tried to. I think a life of insomnia started that night.
A local policeman I know, his parents new to Canada, wanted to stay up for the same third period. His father, stricter than mine, didn’t allow it. He sent him to bed with this line: “They’ll be plenty of Stanley Cups in your lifetime.”
There hasn’t been one since.
Those who play for the Leafs and grew up in the area best understand the position they now have as Leaf player and Leaf fan. We’ve all seen the John Tavares photos of growing up with Maple Leafs sheets and pyjamas and pillow slips. He was born in 1990. He was almost immediately a Leaf fan. The years and teams he remembers most, the ones that meant something to him, came from the Battle of Ontario playoff series of 2000, 2001, 2002: He was nine, 10 and 11 at the time.
“That stays with you,” Tavares said. He understands now what this team means to the nine- and 10- and 11year-olds of today and just as much as what it means to the 59- and 60- and 61-year-olds of the Greater Toronto Area, so many of whom can’t wait for this season to begin.
“We know what we have,” said Mitch Marner, who grew up in Whitby and Thornhill. “We know the calibre of what we are. We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”
That’s the talk around the team. They are buying into the one day at a time thing, the ‘we have to be part of the process’ mantra.
Jim Gregory had a nice team in the 1970s with Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming and Mike Palmateer. Pat Burns and Pat Quinn coached flawed semicontenders in the 1990s and early 2000s. Those teams were OK, sometimes hopeful, sometimes exciting, but really, none were ever thought to be contenders to win a Cup.
Coach Mike Babcock understands all the history. He came to Toronto four years ago and talked about how much pain would be involved in the building of the franchise. In truth, the Leafs weren’t his first choice. He wanted to go to Buffalo. His wife wanted to live in Toronto. Four years later, the Leafs are contenders, the Sabres are still trying to figure out stuff, the Babcocks are happy in Yorkville and his ex-team, the Red Wings are candidates for the Jack Hughes Sweepstakes.
“The first year wasn’t exactly a ton of fun,” said Babcock on Tuesday. “Obviously when I made the decision to come here, lots of people thought I was absolutely crazy and at times in the first year, I thought I was crazy myself.
“Since then, if you look at that time, we’ve been a good team. Now we’re getting to be a better team. It’s great to be all pumped up about life, I just know how hard the league is. We’re just going to do what we always do, try and be concerned about today and getting ready for tomorrow.”
That tonight is the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night at the my bank’s arena. For most of our lives, the Canadiens have been great, the Leafs haven’t been. That narrative is now long gone.
We’re talking Stanley Cup all across the city now, in stores, restaurants, schools with emojis and text messages. The talk is everywhere. It’s loud, it’s vibrant, it’s so full of hope. Truth: it’s never been like this before.
WE’RE EXCITED, THERE’S REASON TO BE EXCITED.